Links from Around the Web

1. Roger Ebert reflects on death and mortality. He says he memorized this quote:

I respect kindness in human beings first of all, and kindness to animals. I don't respect the law; I have a total irreverence for anything connected with society except that which makes the roads safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper and the old men and old women warmer in the winter and happier in the summer.

2. An old interview with Virginia Postrel that captures her worldview nicely. For example:

There are two competing visions of knowledge. In the book, I talk about them as trees: Stasists see knowledge as a tall, spindly palm tree—one long trunk with a few fronds on top. Dynamists, by contrast, envision knowledge as a spreading elm tree—lots of dispersed knowledge, communicated through complex channels, often at a great distance. We benefit from things other people know that we don't. And a lot of knowledge is hidden.

3. Is tendency for entrepreneurship genetic? Nurture once again fails to rear its hopeful head.

4. Is there an education bubble? By the number of AP tests being taken, yes. "A simple but powerful way to determine whether or not there's a irrational bubble is to look for a lot of people who are participating in a trend who have no business doing so."

6. The always worthwhile Laura Miller reviews the new books on concentration and focus in the age of Twitter. We are wired to like the shiny.

7. Should you keep your goals to yourself if you want to achieve them? "A series of experiments shows that when others take notice of our plans, performance is compromised because we gain a premature sense of completeness about the goal."

I agree with the notion of an educational bubble. What really worries me about it is how kids (and their families) spend so much time, energy, and money on an education. And then they enter the world with almost nothing in the way of practical skills.

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